The USEPA released its Pesticides and Ground Water Strategy in October 1991. A goal
of this strategy is to manage pesticides in the environment in order to protect ground-water
resources, and an essential theme is the prevention of pesticide risks to humans and the
environment. Pesticides determined by the USEPA to be leachable to ground water would
be permitted to remain registered in a state only when used under a USEPA-approved
pesticide-specific state management plan (SMP). By adhering to this strategy, USEPA
believes that a compound-specific SMP will prevent ground-water contamination by
restricting the use of a given pesticide in hydrogeologically sensitive areas.

Before implementation of the compound-specific SMP, the USEPA encouraged individual
states to develop generic SMPs (USEPA, 1994b) to serve as templates for all future
compound-specific SMPs. This was done anticipating that generic SMPs would facilitate
the development and approval of compound-specific SMPs. A key distinction is that the
development of generic SMPs is voluntary, whereas the development of compound-specific
SMPs is mandatory. However, states must develop management plans for specific pesticides.
The experience of developing generic plans should be useful in helping state pesticidecontrol
officials develop compound-specific plans.